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*Vi 




Class L VrST 



Book.— 



Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



By LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN 



A PARABLE OF THE ROSE 

And Other Poems 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN : A Poem 

Centennial (Fourth) Edition 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
A POEM. 



NOTE 
To this poem was awarded the prize of one thousand 
dollars offered by the New York Herald in 1895 for the best 
poem on American history. It was published in the Christmas 
issues of the New York Herald, the Boston Herald, and the 
St. Louis Republic of that year. This fourth or Centennial 
edition is a revision and enlargement. 



Abraham Lincoln 

A Poem 



By 
Lyman Whitney Allen 



Centennial (Fourth) Edition 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 

Gbelfcnfcfterbocfter f>res0 

1909 



HY Of CONGRESS 


Two Copies Received 


FEB 6 1909 


M Copyrijciit Entry 

CLASS CL XXc « No ' 
COPY 8. 



E* 



Copyright, 1895 

BY 

JAMES GORDON BENNETT 
Copyright, 1896 

BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 

Copyright, 1909 

BY 

LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN 
(For Fourth Edition) 



Zbe ftnfcfcerboclier press, 1*ew ]£orfc 



TO MYRA. 

Small worth in Heaven where thou dost live 
Has praise of earth : yet unto thee 
My soul would phrase the memory 

Of every grace which thou didst give, — 

The comrade love, the patriot fire, 

The daily sweet solicitude 

Attending every poet mood, 
Ascending with each high desire. 

Full well thou know'st the regnant part 
Thou hadst when first these numbers came; 
Henceforth shall issue in thy name 

This tribute of a grateful heart. 

Where quiring saints and seraphs meet, 
Reach down from out the crowned throng ; 
And, as of yore, be thine the song 

I lay at Love's unvisioned feet. 



CONTENTS. 






PAGE 

Invocation 3 


Historic Preludes 






7 


The Heart of Freedom . 






9 


Ships of Fate . 






11 


A Dream of Empire . 






14 


The Fall of the Dark 






18 


The Champion of Liberty 






21 


The Star of Sangamon 






23 


The People's King . 






3° 


The Great Expectance 






34 


The Nation's Awakening 






37 


Fort Sumter 






39 


Columbia's Wrath . 






44 


Retribution 






47 



CONTENTS. 









PAGE 


The People's Uprising . 


. 


• < 


51 


The Call to Arms . 


. 


. 


53 


The People's Response 


. 


• 


55 


The Gathering of the 


Legions 


62 


Our Volunteers 


. 


. 


64 


Humiliation 


. 


. 


67 


The Price of Liberty 


. 


• 


69 


Bull Run . 






70 


The Ends of Purpose 


. 


. 


72 


Fredericksburg 


. 


• 


74 


Further Darkness . 


. 


. 


76 


The Night of Sorrow- 


. 


• 


77 


Emancipation . 






79 


The Vigil . 






81 


The Nation's Prophet 


. 


. 


85 


The Voice of Destiny 


. 


. 


88 


The Stroke of Justice 


. 


• 


90 



CONTENTS. 


xi 




PAGE 


Victory 


93 


Dawn and Hope . 


95 


Gettysburg .... 


97 


The Lifting Shadows 


99 


The Great Translation 


103 


The Apotheosis 


io 5 


The Voice of Martyrdom 


in 


The Nation's Woe . 


"3 


The Pledge of History . 


117 


Columbia, Great Mother 


119 


Our Soldiers .... 


123 


The Later Warriors 


127 


The Land of Promise 


135 



INVOCATION. 



INVOCATION. 

Of one great Ship that sailed the sea 
And weathered the infuriate blast ; 
Of one great Pilot that stood fast 

And brought her into lee, 



I sing ; and singing seek to use 

Thy founts of grace, as they of yore 

Sought and found service in thy store, 

O immemorial Muse ! 
3 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The Grecian Poet, quaffing thence 
Castalian cheer, song's classic lord, 
Awoke the mythic centuried chord 

Of life's diviner sense. 



The Florentine,with screened eyes, 
Caught rich and Beatrician gleam 
Of Eunoe's redemptive stream, 

And beams of Paradise. 



The Seer of Horton, finding meet 
Thy rills beyond the hills of time, 
Set primal sorrow into rime, 

And sin to music sweet. 



INVOCATION. 

The Laureate of the Holy Grail, 

Deep-drinking, placed before thy face 
The Idyll-Epic of the race, 

The quest's supreme avail. 



The Cambridge Singer o'er the walls 
Of custom clomb, and roaming found, 
On far Itascan storied ground, 

The Laughing Water Falls ; 



The twilight of primeval pines, 
The leafy homes of plumed quires, 
Mondamin's green and golden spires, 

And Hiawatha's shrines. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

O ancient Muse forever young ! 

Guard of the poets' mystic spring ! 

Touch heart and tongue that I may sing 
Somewhat as they have sung, — 



One simple strain of that great song, 
Which ardent bards, through future years, 
O'er ever-brightening hemispheres, 

Shall rapturously prolong ; 



Sweet burthen since the world began, 

Desire of every century, 

Imperious Love's sublime decree, — 
The brotherhood of man. 



HISTORIC PRELUDES. 



THE HEART OF FREEDOM. 

The fragrant meadows of Runnymede 

Grow greener with every succeeding year ; 

The Ironside hoofs of the Puritan's steed 
Still crowd on the Cavalier. 



The laurel blooms upon Burial Hill ; 

The broken tablets are slabs of gold ; 

And Plymouth Rock in the winter's chill 

With summer is aureoled. 
9 



IO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The thunders of Concord and Lexington 
Roll on in music that will not die ; 

And one brave venture for Freedom done 
Immortally crowns July. 



White stars of dawn in a sky of blue, 
And bars of glory o'er land and sea, 

Shall float the emblem all ages through 
Of Union and Liberty. 



So stands our hope with its blessings spread, 

A magna charta inviolate ; 
The deathless soul of the patriot dead ; 

The heart of the living State. 



SHIPS OF FATE. 

Two paths apart on the misty main ; 

Two eager prows toward the beaconing West ; 
O'er crests of courage, through troughs of pain, 

Of life and of death possessed. 



Above the one from seraphic wings 

Blew friendly winds 'gainst the crowded sails; 

And fingers used to celestial strings 

Held back on the rushing gales. 
ii 



12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Below the other a rising sweep 

Of forms foam-raimented ; raven hands 

Forced fiercely through the resentful deep 
Swift woe unto western lands. 



Fair Mayflower, breasting the wintry sea ! 

Thou wert the promise of wakening spring ; 
Embosoming Freedom's destiny 

And Liberty's issuing. 



Dark Slaver, touching Virginia's shore ! 

With captives laden from mast to keel ; 
Thou wert the sign of the deepening sore 

Of wrong that could only heal 



SHIPS OF FATE. 13 

In smoke of battle and streams of blood, 
In orphan cries unto winds and waves, 

In tears of precipitate widowhood 
Bedewing a million graves. 



A DREAM OF EMPIRE. 

A FRUITFUL land 'neath Southern skies, 
With verdant fields and blossomed meads ; 

And o'er the seas increasing rise 

The cries of Europe's greatening needs. 



Wide-stretching belts of meltless snows 

Through swarms of swarthy forms displayed ; 

And purple wealth to golden grows 

Along the thoroughfares of trade. 
14 



A DREAM OF EMPIRE. 1$ 

A dream of empire such as ne'er 
Glowed on the vision of the race ; 

A bounteous breadth of tropic sphere, 
A luminous ocean-rounded space, 



From Hatteras to Panama, 

And summer shores of Mazatlan, 

To copper hills of Arriba 

Beyond the bays of Yucatan ; 



And on o'er Amazonian plain, 

Past Pampean sea and jewelled bourn, 
Through Incan trails and tracks of Spain, 

One empire to the Southern Horn. 



1 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

An empire with its gilded throne 

By flesh and blood enslaved wrought ; 

An empire with its pillared zone 

Of states, whose founders nobly fought 



For right and faith, but failed to trace, 
The while their life-blood stained the sod, 

Within the negro's ebon face 
The image of Almighty God. 



And later scions, holding fast 
Their legacies of sophistry, 

Preferred the world's discordant past, 
Forsook the footsteps of the free, 



A DREAM OF EMPIRE. 



17 



To tread apart revulsive ways, 

Back from the ascending trend of things, 
Back toward the nations' yesterdays, 

Hand unto hand again with kings. 



THE FALL OF THE DARK. 

The dream waits e'er its clear accomplishment 
As night-time waits the day and day's new 
power ; 

Likewise this ancient vision's full event 
Must tarry upon Fate's imperious hour. 



The dream and night were one; the sleepless 
eyes, 

The laborous hands, in places high and low, 
Wrought lustily. What lips may speak the rise 

Of vast preparings, of the underglow 



THE FALL OF THE DARK. 1 9 

Of thought forth-brought as by a miracle 
To coffered gold, to swords and bayonets, 

To mustering hosts and the enlarging spell 
Of hatred rising into thunderous threats? 



Wide-spreading Northern wonderworking grief, 
Grew to engulfing terror. Augurings 

Vulturian filled the air. Calm-browed Belief 
Vanished before Distrust whose venom stings 



All souls impierced, the while all thoughts grew 
dark 

And darkness fell upon the world. The land 
Felt horror's pall, as if its covenant ark 

Were falling into close Philistine hand. 



20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The crush of sorrow and the hush of fear 
Sank in the ominous pause of dumb despite. 

Then out of darkness and of horror sheer 
One sudden vast alarum rilled the night. 



THE CHAMPION OF LIBERTY. 



21 



THE STAR OF SANGAMON. 



A NATION called through the gloom 

In one long wail of despair, 

One multitudinous prayer, 

'Neath portent of hastening doom ; 

And myriad strained eyes 

Were lifted to lowering skies. 

But on a sudden the night 
Was shaken : a marvellous light 
Burst forth, an effulgent spark 

Against the o'erwhelming dark. 
23 



24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

It waxed, it whitened, it shone 
Aflame in the widening zone 
Of dawn ; and a world intent 
Read, scanning the firmament, 
God's covenant blazed thereon, 
America's horoscope, 
The sign of a Nation's hope, 
The Star of Sangamon. 



Not out of the East but the West 
A Star and a Savior rose ; 
A light to an eager quest, 
A spirit of grace possessed, 
Of faith 'mid increasing woes, 
Of wisdom manifest. 



THE STAR OF SANGAMON. 25 

And, forth from the variant past 
Of thraldom's darkness, at last 
God's measureless love for man 
Wrought through heredity's dower 
The great American, 
Whose soul was the perfect flower 
Of patriot planting in soil 
Kept moist by blood and tears, 
And fertile by faithful toil 
Throughout unnumbered years. 



Nor accident nor chance, 
But heavenly ordinance 
Set his nativity 
In ripened fulness of time, 



26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

For sake of a race to be 

The pledge of a golden prime. 

In lowliest spot he breathed 
His first sweet breath of the earth ; 
And life's great Parent bequeathed 
Fair virginal Nature from birth 
To be his tutor and friend, 
His youthful steps to attend. 

She led o'er the wooded hills 
And flowering prairied vales, 
Along by the summer's rills, 
Against the winter's gales, 
Through sweeps of primeval ills, 
Across the Red Men's trails. 



THE STAR OF SANGAMON. 2J 

She taught him the songs of birds, 
The sympathy-syllabled words 
Of water and earth and air, 
And pointed the winding stair 
That leads to Heaven, where climb 
The higher forces of time. 

She bound him, that he might feel 
The weight of Oppression's heel ; 
She starved him, that he might learn 
The hunger of souls that yearn ; 
She bruised him, that he might know 
Somewhat of the world's great woe. 

She helmed him with faith ; she placed 
The girdle of strength at his waist ; 



28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

And over his breast she laid 
The buckler of right ; the blade 
Of truth she set in his hand, 
And bade him unwavering stand, 
As Moses stood with his rod, 
For Freedom and God. 

At length in a deathless hour 
She kissed him ; a quickening power 
Shot forth through her lips of fire 
In touch of divine desire. 

One long sweet look of review ; 
Then suddenly from her she threw 
Her manifold mantle of mystery ; 
And, facing the great Before, 



THE STAR OF SANGAMON. 29 

On unto the famed door 
That opens out into history, 
In radiant rapture she led 
Her hero all panoplied, 
And thrust him from her to be, 
On mission immortal bent, 
Transfigurer of despair, 
The champion of Liberty, 
The hope of a continent, 
God's answer to prayer. 



THE PEOPLE'S KING. 

NOT oft such marvel the years reveal, 

Such beauteous thing, 

A People's King, 
The chosen liege of a chosen weal, 

And Liberty's offering. 

Not oft such product the fair world hath, 

A People's Own, 

On mightiest throne, 

Whose strong foundations are Right and Faith, 

And Virtue the corner-stone. 
30 



THE PEOPLE'S KING. 3 1 

Not by earth's bounty was he prepared ; 

Not princely store, 

Nor golden lore 
Was nurture on which his nature fared 

For strength in the trust he bore ; 



But inner largess of revenue, 

Past time and space, 

The fruits of grace, 
That mellowed upon the tree which grew 

God's food for a famished race. 



In history's mirror he truly saw 
The ages' strife, 



32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

With passion rife, 
'Neath covenant promise a changeless law- 
Writ clear in its serial life. 



He learned from the centuries' battle-fields 

What heroes are, 

How maim and scar 
Are gloried trophies to him who yields 

Himself to the shocks of war ; 

That patriot sires have taught their sons, 

Since days of eld, 

How Truth is held, 
And Justice fashions a nation's guns 

Never to be repelled. 



THE people's king. 33 

Thus was it a purpose for valiant deeds, 

Like whitening flame, 

Through all his frame 
Swept burning until his Country's needs 

His one great thought became. 



Thus was it he took in his sovereign hand, 

With face to fate, 

The orb of state, 
To serve his Country and God, and stand 

To them all consecrate. 



THE GREAT EXPECTANCE. 

He mounted to the People's mystic throne, 
And counted, as he clomb, each step sublime ; 

He marked where its foundations, stone on 
stone, 
Sank deep into the crimsoned soil of time. 

His tread became a kneeling as he rose 

Transfigured by historic overflows. 

His was the great remembrance of the years, 

The panoramic vision of the cost 
Of Right victorious through blood and tears, 

One day of triumph after thousands lost. 
He felt the solemn glory of th' ascent, — 
The passing of a centuried sacrament. 

34 



THE GREAT EXPECTANCE. 35 

So rose he, setting full his thoughts unfurled, 
Toward high and regnant duty. At his heart 

He felt th' expectant chargings of the world 
For wisdom greater than the statesman's art, 

And likewise power, beyond the gift of place, 

For saving of a nation and a race. 



So sat he on his high and sacred seat, — 

He who knew God and God's perplexing 
ways, — 
Believing God and patient with the feet 

Of the swift-shod but loitering, with the 
praise 
And blame commingled, waiting the clear word 
Which God's true seers at last have ever heard. 



36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

So reigned he as amid the seraphim, — 

Albeit the powers of darkness were let loose; 

So saw he, where all other eyes were dim, 
The fiery pillar set for Freedom's use; 

And when the fulness of the time was come 

He ushered in Right's first millennium. 



THE NATION'S AWAKENING. 



37 



FORT SUMTER. 

O'ER sea-girt fortress set toward Charleston's 
orient sun 
Columbia's banner waved, and 'neath it, in 

array, 
A noble band stood waiting for the break of 
day, 
And Southland's primal gun. 

Soon from Palmetto shores and isles historic 
burst 
War's first unfilial thunder, and a signal shell 

39 



40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Rose screaming seaward over guardian 
citadel, 
Predestined and accurst. 

An omened silence ; then from bastioned shoals 
of ire, 
Raged, blazing under wide and reddened fir- 
mament, 
One hurricane of havoc into swift descent 
Of fierce columbiad fire. 

Guns answered guns, till thrice from morn to 
eventide 
The worn defenders strove behind embat- 
tered bars, 



FORT SUMTER. 4 1 

And, faithful to their Country's hallowed 
Stripes and Stars, 
Rebellion's host defied. 

At length, within shot-swept and ravaged ram- 
parts, broke 
Mad conflagration, driven 'neath furious can- 
nonade, 
As if the traitorous Earth had molten wrath 
displayed 
Hurled through volcanian smoke. 

Before resistless storm the standard fell, but 
leapt 
Aloft mid clouds enfuming, and in proud 
disdain 



42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Streamed from its splintered staff above the 
wreck and pain 
And vows of soldiers kept. 

Thrust forth by flame and fate, all honored 
in retreat, 
They unsurrendering went, their banner 

holding fast 
To float thereon again, redeemed, and be at 
last 
Their leader's winding-sheet. 

The die was cast ; Secession's deed flashed to 
renown ; 
The golden South had drunk of her self- 
poisoned cup ; 



FORT SUMTER. 43 

And swift a loyal People's slumberous blood 
rose up 
When Sumter's flag went down. 

And one, a Nation's Prophet, with sad eyes 
afar 
Beholding, steadfast gazed beyond near space 

and time 
Upon th' advancing tide, and saw it sweep 
sublime 
The purple paths of war. 



COLUMBIA'S WRATH. 

THE guns that fired on Sumter's walls 
Awoke a Nation ; far and near 
Were cries of anguish, bursts of fear 

And burning judgment calls. 



Beloved Columbia, wounded sore, 
A moment staggered ; then her form 
Rose towering, while a gathering storm 

Her darkening features wore. 

44 



COLUMBIA'S WRATH. 45 

Her flag that waved o'er Southern sea 
Had fallen while she slept ; but now 
The cloud upon her bended brow 

Was certain augury 



Of hastening vengeance, and the fire, 
That flashed from all her kindled tips 
Of being, was apocalypse 

Of purpose swift and dire ; 



Of purpose dire until the Right 

In dust and blood should conquer Wrong; 

Till mists should lift and morning's song 
Sound through the passing night; 



46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Till victor hosts should rise and plant 
That flag on Sumter's height again ; 
And wipe away for aye her stain, 

And sign her covenant, 



Blood-writ across a million graves, 
That, in her undivided land, 
There nevermore should rest a band 

Upon a race of slaves. 



RETRIBUTION. 

Truth is not truth and error. Truth alone 
She ever is, and what is done for Truth 

Forever lives, the while the world is grown 
To betterness, and all the fire of youth 

Flames in the centuried frame and march of 
things, 

Lasts in the ages' vast recoverings. 

Vengeance God takes, and God has vengeance 
time, 
Wherein the deed returns on him who sins 
' Gainst Truth's white stars of right. Such 
fashions rime 
In the great order of the world, and wins 
The refluent tides of history back from shame, 
Giving to Justice her eternal claim. 

47 



48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

God is no tyrant ; immemorial laws 

He armors Nature with, set rank on rank 

Amid the suns, whose gloried presence draws 
Admiring eyes, makes music, fills the blank 

' Twixt God and man with Love's high instru- 
ments 

That work high Love's continuous descents. 



Who violates God's laws arch-foe becomes 
To all that makes himself God's miniature, 

To all that heralds Love's millenniums, 
That holds the pillars of creation sure. 

He is his own destroyer who destroys 

What God has fashioned and what God em- 
ploys. 



RETRIBUTION. 49 

Fulness of time, fulness of circumstance, 
High indignation, sense of righteousness, 

Remembrance of shed blood and all th' advance 
Of Freedom got through battle-storm and 
stress, 

The cries of captives God created free, 

Assault upon a nation's destiny ! 



The deed's return ! Bright swords of cherubim 
Whirled everywhither through the thunder- 
ous night. 

The white battalions flamed along the rim 
Of the recoiling earth. Th* eternal light 

Of retribution, glimmering from afar, 

Became the Right's inviolate avatar. 



THE PEOPLE'S UPRISING. 



51 



THE CALL TO ARMS. 

Beside Columbia stood one 
Begot of Holy Liberty ; 
Exalted by her grace to be 

Her favored regnant son. 



That sacred trust his heart and brain 
In swift and sweet devotion drew ; 
And well his loyal nature knew 

The measure of her pain. 

53 



54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

And all his being rose with hers ; 
Till, facing her untongued distress, 
Remembering the faithfulness 

Of past deliverers, 



He took from out his sacred girth 
The golden trumpet which he bore 
Blew such a blast as ne'er before 

Was heard in all the earth ; 



A blast that sounded war's alarms, 

From north to south, from east to west ; 
Columbia's supreme behest, 

The Nation's call to arms. 



THE PEOPLE'S RESPONSE. 

It rang o'er the startled land, 
One sovereign blast of command. 
It rolled from sea unto sea, 
The summons of Liberty. 
It broke 'gainst the scintillant hills, 
Resounding in multiple thrills 
Of wakening thunder. It swept 
Through valleys and over streams, 
The militant havoc of dreams 
Of troubled millions that slept. 
It stirred all hearts as it went, 



Arousing a continent. 

55 



56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The People's answer came ; 
A splendor burst on the night ; 
The crests of the hills were flame ; 
The valleys were lines of light ; 
The winds were voices of trust ; 
A soul was incarnate in dust ; 
The frame of the struggling earth 
Drew nigh to a second birth. 

The People leapt to their feet, 
Their strength like a giant's brawn, 
Their zeal like a furnace heat, 
Their hope like the widening dawn. 

And up to the throne of Him 
Who reigns 'twixt the cherubim, 



THE PEOPLE S RESPONSE. S7 

'Mid supplicatory throes 

A vow inviolate rose ; 

That, be it through torturing pain, 

Their banner should rise again ; 

That ne'er should the Federal Stars 

Give place to the Southern Bars ; 

That, under God's judgment sky, 

Rebellion at last should lie 

In overthrow complete 

Beneath Columbia's feet. 

And thus a People quivering stood, 
And offered their blood. 

The crags replied to the echoing crags, 
And flags waved answer to flags. 



58 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



O'er wharf and harbor, o'er vale and hill, 

And loyal domicile, 

O'er school and languishing academe 

A banner floated supreme. 

O'er bustling mart and thoroughfare 

One standard streamed to the air. 

From argent turrets and glittering spires 

The pennons of sainted sires 

Were signs of a storied Faith that wore 

Her lustrous robes as of yore. 

The steam-shod chargers of turbulent trade, 

Thundering through meadow and glade, 

Were freighted for Freedom, and southward flew 

Ablaze with the Red, White and Blue. 

And vows were written again and again, 

Till earth was a manuscript 



THE PEOPLE'S RESPONSE. 59 



Illuminated by patriot pen 
In triplicate glory dipt. 



The plow was left in the fallow field 

For sake of a larger yield. 

The iron lay cold in the smouldering flame 

Because of a higher claim. 

The rattling shuttle, the whirring loom 

Were hushed at the cannon's boom. 

And over the land the market's hum 

Gave place to the fife and drum. 

The workers, trained for the shop and mill, 

Aspired to a warrior's skill. 

The poet deserted his golden song 

To join the armed throng. 



60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The sculptor forsook his half-carved stone 

At sound of the bugle blown. 

Each town and hamlet became a spring 

Of chivalric issuing, 

A living current of sacrifice 

Full-set toward a great emprise. 

The plowshares sprang into glistening swords, 

And pruning-hooks into spears ; 

Love's accents broke into farewell words, 

And laughter was changed to tears. 

Across the threshold the mother gave 

Her son for a soldier's grave ; 

And freely yielded the weeping wife 

The heart of her heart for strife. 

Despair strode in through the gates of home, 

And Hope fled forth to roam. 



THE PEOPLE'S RESPONSE. 6l 

All hearts were one, and the Nation's soul 

Moved on toward its sacred goal. 

Beneath the sky's cerulean hue 

The hills and the vales were blue. 

The sun flashed down, in its dazzling wheel, 

On billows of bristling steel. 



THE GATHERING OF THE LEGIONS. 

Majestic swept from coast to coast 

Columbia's azure-liveried host. 

From Pilgrim havens, from Pine-Tree shades, 

And over the walls of the Palisades ; 

From Eldorado's aureate sand, 

Past geyser vales of the Wonderland ; 

From linked lakes, from the castled mounds 

Of Gathering Waters, from forest bounds ; 

O'er purple canyons and ferny glens, 

Ravined plateaus and miasmal fens, 

Meridian rivers and prairies wide, 

And granite domes of the Great Divide ; 

From Empire Portal, from Golden Gate, 
62 



THE GATHERING OF THE LEGIONS. 63 

To Country and Liberty consecrate, 
With " Union forever " their rallying cry, 
To stand for the Colors, or under them die, 
By one unfaltering faith controlled, 
The patriot legions onward rolled ; 
On, on, at the clarion call of him 
Who stood with face to a spectre grim, 
And saw, o'er the crests of the surging tide, 
The crimson Furies of Fratricide ; 
On, on, toward the hallowed citadel, 
Where Freedom's chosen guardians dwell ; 
On, on, the myriads swept along, 
With rhythmic tread and with ringing song, 
With heralding bugle and fife and drum : 
" We come, Father Abraham, we come, 
Six hundred thousand strong." 



OUR VOLUNTEERS. 

O sacred miracle wrought of truth ! 

Of truth and time, 

And love sublime ! 
And through the bloom of perpetual youth, 

The wonder of every clime ! 

O summer of sorrow that gloams afar ! 

Across the years 

Of mists and tears ! 

How beauteous now the memories are 

That halo your Volunteers ! 
6 4 



OUR VOLUNTEERS. 



65 



O Freemen who rose when their Country called ! 

Such patriots those, 

Where else disclose 
Or lands or seasons, by Heaven forestalled, 

Against impetuous foes? 

Immortal Legions that gathered then ! 

When skies were black, 

And Freedom's track 
Lay close by chasms which none could ken, 

And under the tempest's wrack ! 

O Heroes that never shall be forgot ! 
Though life be done, 
And rest be won, 



66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

And earth be given for blesseder spot 
That needs no light of the sun ! 

Columbia's power supreme shall last, 
Through endless years, 
Beyond all fears, 

The future risen above the past, 
Upheld by her Volunteers. 



HUMILIATION. 



67 



THE PRICE OF LIBERTY. 

The price of liberty is patriot blood. 

Thus is it written with the dripping sword 
Across the pages of the ages past. 
Where'er uplifted stands the crowned Good, 
Beneath her bleeding feet lies Evil's horde, 
Defiant and contending to the last. 

So was it that the azure sky of noon 
Should darken, and calm Nature terrified 
Should tremble in the fierce and thun- 
derous jar ; 
So was it that the flowered fields of June 
Should redden, and seolian summer-tide 
Grow strident with the agony of war. 

69 



BULL RUN. 

LONG lines of steel in the morning, 
Wide winding columns of blue ; 
The Sabbath's hush, 
The dawn's sweet flush, 
Brave hearts all failure scorning 
And fresh as the glistening dew. 

High noon o'er the trampled meadows 
And Bull Run's crimsoned stream ; 

Hot shot and shell 

And swaths of Hell ; 
Bold forms in the flaming shadows 

Aface to a fiery dream. 

70 



BULL RUN. 71 

Dust-clouds in the evening rising, 
New hope to a turning foe; 
Tumultuous flight, 
Blood, rapine and night ; 
The Nation's heart agonizing, 
A clamor of fear and woe. 



THE ENDS OF PURPOSE. 

The blood of patriots is freedom's price. 

The faith that holds th' ascendings of the 
world 
And links the heavens and earth in closer 
bond 
Grows layer on layer by mortal sacrifice; 

Thus has it deep foundations, while unfurled 
Its banners to the winds of hope respond. 



God counts not time by years, but by the ends 

Of purpose, by each holy cross of shame 

Set in the great enlargings of the race. 

Defeat is God's arch-servant and attends, 

Valet to Victory, the unseen frame 

That moves beside each circumstantial 

grace. 

72 



THE ENDS OF PURPOSE. 73 

So was it days of gloom were manifold ; 
So was it mists of terror lifted slow ; 

And Freedom feared, not seeing God's 
right-hand ; 
Yet somehow hands were felt and potence old 
That oft had shook the world, while one vast 
woe 
Was working for th' enriching of the land. 



FREDERICKSBURG. 

Up terraced heights steel-swarded, 
' Neath Death's artilleried wings, 
With bugle notes 
' Gainst cannon throats, 
Forced heroes charged, bombarded, 
In mad adventurings. 

They rated blood as water, 
And all the slope shone red : 
Past valor's call, 
By bristling wall, 
Defeat linked arms with Slaughter 
Astride the blue-robed dead. 
74 



FREDERICKSBURG. 75 

Mixed Night and Doom descended 
And crushed th' ensanguined Day. 
The Stars in dust, 
Despair, distrust, 
With God th' Uncomprehended 
And Faith too shocked to pray. 



FURTHER DARKNESS. 

SWIFT southward swept the story of success ; 
And Southern spirits flushed invincible ; 
Rebellion rose before the world a thing 
Kissed into life of Heaven ; and Eagerness, 
Repanoplied with fortune's gloried spell, 
Stood smiling on sure triumph reckoning. 

Swift northward swept the story of defeat, 

And Northern spirits paled for lengthened 

loss, — 

Refining of the furnace, chastening sent 

Of Freedom's God, the threshing of the wheat ; 

And faltering not a nation bore its cross, 

And forward unto further darkness went. 
76 



THE NIGHT OF SORROW. 

THE skies withdrew their guidings ; star by- 
star 
Fled from the circuit of engulfing cloud ; 
The moon eclipsed glowed 
Unbeauteous beyond its lurid bar ; 

And forth, inexpiate and crimson-browed, 
Carnage emblazoned strode. 

The midnight deepened, and war's widening 
way 
Shook 'neath his clangorous tread all uncon- 
trolled. 

77 



yS ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The winds were bruiting breath 
Of Consternation laden with red spray ; 

And happenings were spectres that foretold 
Impending doom and death. 

And Pain was myriad-throated ; and Despair 
Waxed flagrant with unloosed and vagrant 
tongue ; 
Terror's envenomed pack 
Tore at the bosom of scarce-struggling Prayer ; 
Distrust o'er pallid Faith her mantle flung, 
Along war's ghastly track. 



EMANCIPATION. 



79 



THE VIGIL. 

And one beside Columbia's prostrate form 
Watched, in lone vigil, from his regent height, 
The Nation's hopes decline ; 
And set intrepid breast against the storm, 
Facing the fury of inflamed despite, 
Waiting celestial sign ; 

While through the fiery rifts his worn eyes 
strained 
Past wastes of graves, where hosts, once glis- 
tening, 
Now silent prisoners lay ; 

6 81 



82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

And saw with priceless blood the green earth 
stained, 
And war's low-flying vultures, wing to wing, 
Disaster and Dismay. 

Seven-times refined by fire, his mediate soul 
Heard the unburthening and ascending woes 
Of serried sacrifice, 
The anguished sighings of his People, roll 
Up to the throne of God ; and felt the 
throes 
Of supplication rise ; 

And caught the wailings from expanses higher 
Of multitudes that 'neath the altar cried, 
" How long, O Lord, how long ? 



THE VIGIL. 83 

How long ere Justice shall her rod acquire? 
How long ere Vengeance forth in might shall 
ride 
Against Earth's hoary wrong ? " 



And, far uplifted on the slopes of grace, 

His soul, in prayer impassioned, touched 
with God 
Through puissant lengths of faith ; 
When, lo, before him flashed from farther 
space, 
Cloud-clothed, with rainbowed brow and feet 
fire-shod, 
Above the tempest's path, 



84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

His troubled Country's guardian Hierarch, 
Imperious by Earth's supreme demand 
And Heaven's august decree ; 
In flaming splendor vanquishing the dark, 
Pointing to duty, with directing hand, 
And ways of victory. 



THE NATION'S PROPHET. 

The hour was come, and with it rose the man 
Ordained of God and fashioned for the hour; 
The savior of a race ; 
For whom wrought ever, since the world began, 
The subtle energies of thought and power 
In lineal lines of grace. 

A gentle spirit, ever wise and good, 
That loved the holy, idolized the pure ; 
A heart of iron, strong 

With instincts set to human brotherhood, 
With sovereignty of impulse to secure 

The overthrow of wrong. 

85 



86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Incarnate Conscience; Right's embodiment; 
Benignant Nature's generous bequest 
In mind and feature writ ; 
Life's lore and legends into wisdom blent ; 
Past verities to present truth compressed ; 
The People's composite. 



A master-mind was his that gazing saw 
The refluent tide of battle, felt the fires 
That swept all withering ; 
A master-mind, set to a higher law, 

That heard, above the Earth's despairing, 
quires 
Of heavenly promise sing. 



THE NATION'S PROPHET. 87 

Unruffled like the mighty undersea, 

Calm like the star above the shifting cloud, 
Abiding truth and time, 
Full-mantled with a prophet's majesty 

He stood, the Nation's larger soul, endowed 
With faith and hope sublime. 



THE VOICE OF DESTINY. 

The hour was come, and in that hour he stood 
Responsive to the sacred voice that spake 
From Heaven and earth and sea. 
He heard the dusky toiling multitude 

Plaintively pleading that his hand should 
break 
Their bonds and set them free. 



He heard the voice of God from shining height, 
Who, for the reason of the Nation's sin, 
Had held her armies back 

88 



THE VOICE OF DESTINY. 89 

In failure and defeat, till she should right 
The wrongs herself had sanctioned, and 
should win 
Justice unto her track ; 



When, girded with the strength of righteous- 
ness, 
God for her, with descending seraphim, 
Above the battle's tide, 
She then would march to triumph, and possess 
A land united to the farthest rim, 
Through sorrow purified. 



THE STROKE OF JUSTICE. 

The hour was come, the Nation's crucial hour; 
A crisis of the world, a turn of time ; 
The ages' hope and dream. 
And one undaunted soul, sinewed with power, 
Freedom's anointed, rose to height sublime, 
Imperial and supreme ; 



And, lifting high o'er groaning multitude 

His sovereign sceptre, smote with such a 

stroke 

The chains of centuries, 
90 



THE STROKE OF JUSTICE. 91 

That earth was shaken to its farthest rood ; 
That millioned manacles asunder broke, 
And myriad properties 



Became, in one immortal moment, — men ; 
Free with the free in all the rounded earth ; 
Redeemed by martyr blood; 
To stand with faces to the light again, 

Attaining, through their resurrection birth, 
To human brotherhood. 



VICTORY. 



93 



DAWN AND HOPE. 

HAIL Dawn ! whose purpled raiment sweeps 
before, 
Round radiant feet, the chariot of Light, 
Forerunner of the Day ! 
Dawn ! whose most mystical and quickening 
lore 
Starts Nature's silenced voices of the Night 
To full-tuned roundelay. 

Hail Dawn ! whose form, with dewdrops all 
bestrewn, 
Drives back the dark before the lark's ad- 
vance ; 
Descends th' expectant hills ; 
Runs o'er the vales that 'neath her shining 
shoon 

95 



g6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

With rapture tremble till the grass-spears 
dance 
Along the sparkling rills. 

Hail Dawn! whose sister, Hope, trails close 
beside 
Across the spaces dim of Pain and Fear, 
Sweet, passionate, and pale, 
With eyes of purest light and undenied 
On earth the glory of her natal sphere 
Where Love and Peace prevail. 

Hail Dawn and Hope ! whose subtle presences 
Together chant the march of Victory's 
Descendings from the blue ; 
Whose wildering workings of far grace possess 
Heaven's near unfoldings in earth's summer 
breeze 
O'er every avenue. 



GETTYSBURG. 

Redemption marched unknowing 
Where lay the field of strife ; 
But Heaven and Hell's 
Embattling spells 
Were lords of Fate, bestrowing 
The earth with dead for life. 

Courage and Carnage mated 
To hue the ends of time ; 
In balance hung 
A nation swung, 
While all creation waited 

Round battle gore and grime. 

7 Q7 



98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

They fought for all the ages, — 
Blue saviors of the world ; 
Made Stars and Stripes 
Right's archetypes ; 
Took Duty's dreams for wages, 
And Freedom's flag unfurled. 



THE LIFTING SHADOWS. 

THE shadows slowly lifted from the sun ; 
The benediction splendors downward rolled, 
Fore-flush of day to be ; 
The Nation's Prophet stood, his mission done, 
Upon the covenant mountains, aureoled 
With immortality. 

The shadows slowly lifted, and the Land 

Grew glad, e'en though the blood of heroes 
veined 
Her sacramental face; 
For Right at last had risen to command, 
And Justice had in her Republic gained 
Her high and holy place. 

99 



100 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

And though th' unsilenced drumbeat filled the 
air, 
And armies marched, guns thundered, earth 
waxed red, 
And tears rolled up high mist 
'Twixt lurid Hope and Consummation fair, — 
Yet he who heard the upper battle-tread 
And saw wings white and whist 



Blow out the nether squadrons, unbeheld 
But dire and darkled, back, abysmward, 
Wild wind to wildered flame, 
Wot mystically where black ruin swelled, 
Engulfing floods, on earth uncalendared 
But in the heavens a fame, — 



THE LIFTING SHADOWS. IOI 

Perceived a psychic lordship steal athwart 
Sidereal wastes from Nature's central deeps, 
Making his soul its zone, — 
A prescience of th* unsighted heights apart, 
And the unwearying watch Love ever keeps 
O'er Right's unvarying own. 



THE GREAT TRANSLATION 



I03 



THE APOTHEOSIS. 

To one superior peak, before untrod, 

Alone he clomb, the summons heard by 
naught 
Save his interior soul ; 
The Nebo of his life, the mount of God 
All luminous ; and marvelling he caught 
Swift vision of the goal 

Of his unwavering faith, the Promised Land 
Toward which his feet had led his People on 
O'er wastes of blood and fire ; 

And gazing saw the breadths of grace expand 
Apocalyptic in the halcyon dawn 

Of centuried desire. 

105 



Io6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

He saw across the passing hurricane 
His Country's armies march to victory ; 
And, lifted to the light, 
The Stars and Stripes in glory wave again, 
Invincible, the standard of the free, 
The sacred sign of right. 



He saw the battle-clouds disperse for aye ; 
The camp-fires of the Nation smouldering ; 
A million veterans tread 
The smiling paths along the homeward way; 
Expectant gates of welcome open swing, 
And feasts of gladness spread. 



THE APOTHEOSIS. 107 

The vision widened, and the distant view 
Grew clearer till the fugitive forecast 
Of far horizons shone ; 
And earth became a thronged avenue 
With multitudes processional that passed 
Before his prophet throne. 



He saw the golden South refashioned rise, 
Transcending all her dreams imperial, 
To greatening power and fame ; 
A deeper azure in her bending skies, 

Increasing wealth of nature quickening all 
Her strong and beauteous frame. 



108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

He saw the argent North anew inspired, 
Beneath her holy chrism, to truer love 
For her rich heritage, — 
The revenue of sacrifice acquired 

In service, which, from hallowed founts above, 
Shall flow through every age. 



He saw the wounds of war in Union healed ; 
No North, no South ; from sea to mountain 

«p 

One land, one flag for aye ; 
And kindred blood, mixed on the battle-field, 
Cementing, in perpetual fellowship, 
The Nation's Blue and Gray. 



THE APOTHEOSIS. IO9 

He saw the marble columns 'gainst the sky ; 
The flowered garlands o'er the palls of green ; 
The gathered worshippers 
Conning the story that 't is sweet to die 
For Country, and to win the prize serene 
A grateful world confers. 



The splendor spread to its meridian prime, 
And earth lay fruited 'neath the noon's 
caress ; 
He saw from zone to zone 
The feet of Love upon the crests of Time, 
The hand of Peace dispensing blessedness 
From Freedom's central throne. 



HO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

He saw the upward march of centuries ; 
He heard the gloried sweeps of gratitude 
Above the glad earth rise, 
Antiphonal with strains of heavenly bliss, 
The diapasons of beatitude, 
Hymnings of Paradise. 



Listening, he heard the sweet adagios 
Of quiring angels, and the morning song 
Of the redeemed and free ; — 
And was not, for God took him ; and he rose, 
Caught to the bosom of that martyr throng 
Who died for Liberty. 



THE VOICE OF MARTYRDOM. 

IN the great world there are no accidents ; 
Enthroned above the ages' ebb and flow, 
Unseen, misunderstood, 
God rules, who in all seasons and events, 
Through fiery evil and o'erwhelming woe, 
Forever works the good. 



And God hath wrought the good ; forevermore 
The million-mouthed cries of martyrdom 
Are one immortal voice 

That sounds triumphant o'er the mighty roar 

Of instant days and centuries to come, 

And bids the world rejoice; — 
in 



112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Rejoice that Freedom's gifts the earth adorn, 
And every path is open thoroughfare 
Won on the fields of strife ; 
That man may mount to highways of the 
morn, 
With Faith the light, and Hope the fragrant 
air, 
And Charity the life. 



THE NATION'S WOE. 

'T IS proverbed that the individual soul 
Gets finest furtherance through furnace fire, 

And Godlike grows ere it foreshows God's goal: 
Likewise a nation, ere it can acquire 



The leadership of nations, speed God's part 
In high achieving, ends of grace forestall, 

Must wildered reason yoke with broken heart, 
Feeling for God and finding Him its all. 

8 II 3 



114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The Nation's sorrow ! Thou wert sent to bless; 

Thine was predestined holy motherhood ; 
Of thee has come th' immortal tenderness 

That beats unceasing in a people's blood. 



For when one name beloved of all strong names 
Our Country honors is out-breathed there 
springs 

A mystic feeling, pure as altar flames, 
Remembrance of vicarious sufferings ; 



Heart softens unto heart ; an occult tie 

Binds soul to soul ; a prescient atmosphere, 

More gentle than the dawn, falls sacredly 
Of light unseen, of music none may hear. 



THE NATION S WOE. 115 

And one vast holy pride leaps from the dust, 
Grasps Stars and Stripes and leads the on- 
ward way 
Of God's anointed Nation, through whose trust 
Comes to its noon redemption's whitening 
day. 



THE PLEDGE OF HISTORY. 



"7 



COLUMBIA, GREAT MOTHER. 

COLUMBIA, great Mother ; through all lands 
The memory of her storied prowess runs 

And glorified expands. 

Columbia enfreedomed ; thus she stands, 
Behind the bulwark of her noble sons, 

Robed in her starry bands. 

Behold her risen from embattled plains, 
More beautiful by all her holy scars 

And sacred martial stains ! 

What grace and wisdom her proud form attains ! 

With sheathed sword beneath her Stripes 

and Stars 

How tranquilly she reigns ! 
119 



120 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Her realm is of all realms the goodliest, 
The fairest of the new Hesperides ; 

A zone of fulness blest 

With golden fruits unfound in ancient quest, 
And gladdening wine all sweet unto the lees ; 

The free and welcoming West. 



She knows the bitter of Oppression's gall ; 

She knows the taste of Freedom's nectared 
cheer ; 
And when the sorrowing call, 
E'en though it be beyond her ocean wall, 

Remembering her past, shall she not hear 
And Liberty forestall? 



THE PLEDGE OF HISTORY. I2 i 

For high and holy ends God made her strong, 
And set her on the sacred heights of trust, 

The constant foe of wrong. 

Her forces unto Righteousness belong, 

That prostrate forms may rise from out the 
dust, 

And sighing change to song. 



Never shall she forget, as years speed on, 
That unto God her virgin troth was given ; 

That 'neath His benison 

The mighty triumphs of her past were won ; 
And so for her the stars shall strive from 
Heaven, 

If righteous deeds be done. 



122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Columbia enthroned ; through all time 

Swift answering to Freedom ; they who rose, 

For sake of her sublime, 

Are pledge that ever, as the race shall climb 
Yet higher, she shall point to paths that 
close 

Upon the ages' prime. 



OUR SOLDIERS. 

O Soldiers, who stood for the Flag of our 
Nation ! 
Columbia's children can never forget, 
How you, through the grace of your sacred 
oblation, 
Her honor and glory invincible set. 

Behold the proud Banner of Liberty streaming ! 

The Flag of our Union, the Red, White and 

Blue! 

Its Stripes all undimmed and its Stars ever 

beaming, 

Baptized in the blood of the brave and the 

true. 

123 



124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

You marched and were weary, you fought and 
were wounded, 

You fell in the battle, you sank in the storm ; 
But out of your sacrifice Heaven has rounded 

The hope of the ages to beauteous form. 

Across the scarred fields of your struggles im- 
mortal, 
In reverent reviewing the hosts of the free 
Shall trace the red paths which you trod to 
Fame's portal, 
And sacredly pledge, through the years that 
will be, 

To follow unswerving your feet of devotion, 
Inspired by your holy and generous deeds ; 



OUR SOLDIERS. 125 

And, filled with a pure and a patriot emotion, 
Be true in their Country's imperative needs. 

Upon the firm granite the marvellous story 
Of valor, with chisel of love, is engraved ; 

The ages shall read, and exalt to new glory 
The crimson-stained banner you gallantly 
saved. 

Around the green mounds wnere your forms 
lie a-sleeping, 
The People shall gather again and again ; 
And, blessing your memories, place in your 
keeping 
The palms of thanksgiving, the laurels of 
pain. 



126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

All quickened by Duty's ensanguined libation, 
A Nation's new flower has bloomed from the 
clay; 
The sweet asphodel of a fresh consecration, 
Sprung out of the graves of the Blue and the 
Gray. 

Pass on, O our Soldiers, to heavenly capture ! 

We follow swift after beneath your renown ; 
Pass on to the bivouac of rest and of rapture ! 

Behind you our freedom, before you your 
crown. 



THE LATER WARRIORS. 

Republic, saved by blood ! 

Inviolate vows, sworn on thy hallowed altars, 
Are borne from mouth to mouth ; 
From good to greater good 

Right's triumph forward strides, and never 
falters, 
Through welded North and South. 

Th' unsilenced martyrs speak ; 

Increasing spreads the Truth's commanding 
valiance ; 
While he who lists above 
Hears, peak in fugue to peak, 

Heaven's sacred chimes o'er earth's unceas- 
ing salliance 

Of heroes, lords of Love, — 
127 



128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The Love that hath large eyes, 

Beholding the oncoming generations 
And Nature's greatening frame 
Through all democracies ; 

Senses that feel the past's renunciations 
And God's high will like flame. 



The lords of Love and Faith, 

Who hold God's torches 'gainst the dark, 
forspending 
As spent historic hosts, — 
These are the strong, as saith 

Hierarchic tongue, the Nation's bulwarks 
bending 
Back Evil's thrusts and boasts. 



THE LATER WARRIORS. 1 29 

From age to age they come, — 

The later warriors, with set plowshares beaten 
From ancient swords, and turn 
God's furrows, — without drum 

Or bugle, but with holy visions heaten, 
That quicken while they burn. 



From every clime they march ; 
And they who wait shall have the great be- 
holding 
Of wonder yet unseen, — 
Love's nation-builded arch 

Of freedom risen o'er seas and manifolding 
On every power's demesne. 



130 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The sceptre shall not fall 

Which freemen placed in Right's unflinching 
fingers ; 
The crown shall not grow dim 
Within her judgment hall. 

Her throne shall stand secure while memory 
lingers 
And chants Faith's battle-hymn : — 



" O Lord of all the earth ! 

We follow where Thou leadest, stoutly fight- 
ing 
Thy battles which are ours. 
Thou gavest Freedom birth ; 

We are her sons, the wrong devoutly right- 
ing 
And slaying Evil's powers. 



THE LATER WARRIORS. 131 

" Thy cause, O God ! shall win ; 

There cannot fail Thy promise, our en- 
deavor, 
Set with Thy sovran seal. 
Keep us the foes of sin ; 

Make duty clear, assurance strong, and ever 
Give us faith's martyr zeal. 



" So may Thy kingdom be, 

Enlightening the nations with Thy glory, 
Consuming with Thy grace. 
We hail man's destiny, 

Wrought on earth's battle-fields in crimsoned 
story, 
Which all the heavens embrace." 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 



133 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 

THE mists on the mountain peaks 
Melt fleet in the glad new morn ; 
The hope of the world is born ; 

The Sphinx of the ages speaks. 

The wrinkled forehead of Time 
Responds to his laughing soul ; 
The runner has reached the goal ; 

And all things fall into rhyme. 

135 



136 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The winds are poets, and sing 
September back into June ; 
The radiant asters swoon, 

All purpling toward the Spring. 



The bitter is changed to sweet ; 

The bruises of battle heal ; 

And Peace stands again at the wheel, 
And turns it with glowing feet. 



O God-given Occident! 

O Land of Promise ! whose sphere 
Is Nature's enlarged career 

And Spirit's divine ascent ; 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 1 37 

Reserved for the fulness of days 
Through haze of the desert past; 
A Canaan revealed at last 

Of fruited and flowered ways. 



From sea to the granite hills, 
From crests of snow to the sea, 
Rush, flashing with energy, 

Innumerous crystal rills. 



The mountains impatient stand 
For mystic call of desire ; 
The vales inviting conspire 

For magic touch of command ; 



I38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Expectant of labor's keys, 

Strong-wrought at the forge of hope, 
Their subterrene doors to ope, 

Disclosing earth's treasuries, — 



Great inner chambers of gold, 
And vaults of potential heat, 
Primeval power's retreat, 

The store of the ages old ; 



The store of the ages new, 

And force for the higher trend, 
Where Nature and Spirit blend 

In rise toward the blazoned blue. 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 1 39 

Behold th' enriching dower 

Since Freedom and Toil were wed ! 
Brawn's harvests that turn to bread ; 

Mind's visions that change to power ; 



Far belts of perspective steel ; 

Processions of strenuous steam ; 

The passing thrones of a dream 
God gives to His commonweal ; 



Sky-piercing of art from the dust, 
Sprung whither the high winds sing ; 
The Occident's sheltering 

Of manhood's commutual trust ; 



I40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

Wide-open portals to thought ; 

Unhindered highways to prayer ; 

And spirit the regnant heir 
Of guerdons the flesh has wrought. 



Fair Land from sea unto sea, 

Redeemed from its centuried stain ; 
Made new through heroic pain ; 

Awaiting the great To-be. 



Fulfilment of Liberty's dream 
And Love's acceptable year ; 
The will of the Lord made clear ; 

The voice of the People supreme. 



THE LAND OF PROMISE. 141 

All barriers broken down ; 

The eagles of faith a-wing ; 

Democracy for king, 
With justice its sacred crown. 



God's kingdom in miniature ; 

The governance of the good ; 

The glory of brotherhood ; 
The rights of man to endure. 



The home of the world's oppressed ; 

The answer of Trust to Care ; 

The welcome of Hope to Despair ; 
The earth's great hearthstone of rest. 



142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

One Union never to fall ; 

One Freedom never to cease ; 

One ineffaceable Peace ; 
One Flag afloat over all. 



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